Google Ads Conversion Tracking for Shopify [2025]

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

The quote signifies the importance of implementing a data-driven approach in business management. But the same can also be applied to the modern eCommerce world in many aspects, especially managing ad campaigns.

When running Google ad campaigns, you must accurately track and measure the conversion data to identify if you’re generating a positive ROI. While you don’t want to spend more money on less effective ads, you’d surely want to optimize the ones giving the best results.

In this blog post, we’ll cover methods of Google Ads conversion tracking for Shopify. This setup will help you with effective conversion measurement and make the most out of your ad budget.

Let’s start with some basics first!

What is Google Ads Conversion Tracking?

Google Ads conversion tracking is a function that helps you gain insights about customer behavior after they interact with your ads. For example, after clicking on an ad, a customer may take actions like buying your product, signing up for the newsletter, downloading a free digital product, and so on.

When you install a Google & YouTube channel in your Shopify admin, you’ll find it referred to as “Conversion measurement”. So, just keep in mind that “conversion tracking” and “conversion measurement” are ultimately the same concept.

Also, it’s up to you to define what action is considered a successful conversion. You can define the conversion event based on your business or ad campaign goals. But the point is — you must accurately measure and attribute conversion results to the respective ad campaigns.

For example, let’s say you’re running two different ads on Google for the same goal: promoting your newly launched product. “Campaign A” is giving you a 5% conversion, and “Campaign B” is generating a 10% conversion rate. 

Of course, you’d want to scale “Campaign B” and spend more money on it, right? But in order to make such robust decisions, you must have a robust tracking system in place.

Why Google Ads Conversion Tracking Matters?

• Measure ROI of Your Ad Campaigns

When running any sort of ads, you need to know the return it’s generating against the investment or cost of running those ads. If you don’t track the conversion rate of Google Ads, how would you know whether the campaign is successful and needs to be continued or ended when you’re losing money?

• Allocate Budget for Ad Campaigns Effectively

When running ads, you need to allocate a budget for each campaign so that you don’t overspend without getting the desired outcome. Conversion tracking of your Google ads helps you make better decisions on budget allocation.

• Gather Valuable Insights

Google Ads conversion tracking data not only helps you measure the effectiveness of your ad campaigns, but it also provides great insights about your customer behavior and journey. These insights could be used to create robust decisions in your marketing strategies as well.

• Perform Experiments with Ads Using the Tracking Data

If you want to perform A/B testing on your Google ad campaigns, you need to know the conversion data for each ad version. So, if you’re not tracking that data, it becomes difficult to accurately derive the results of your tests.

How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking on Shopify

There are multiple ways you can set up Google Ads conversion tracking on your Shopify store. In this guide, we’ll focus on two key methods.

Method #1: Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking Using the Google & YouTube App

This one is a simple method where we’ll configure conversion tracking using the official Google & YouTube app.

What is the Google & YouTube app/channel?

The Google & YouTube app can be installed from the Shopify App Store, but in fact, it's a channel that helps you automatically sync your products and other relevant store information with the Google Merchant Center account.

Step 1: Install the Google & YouTube App

Go to your Shopify admin and click on the Apps tab on the left sidebar. Search for the “Google & YouTube” app and open it.

As the app opens in the Shopify App Store, you can see it already has close to 4,000 reviews with a good rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Meaning, the app is already being used by thousands of merchants.

Click on the Install button to proceed with installation.

Review the access permissions and click the Install button again to complete the installation.

Step 2: Connect Your Google Account

Once the app is installed, you’ll land on the app dashboard in the Shopify admin. First, you’ll need to connect your Google account. If you have a Google Ads account, you can connect that Google account.

Once you click on the “Connect Google account” button, you’ll see the Google accounts you’re logged into. Select the relevant one. Click “Continue” to review and approve the required permissions. Click the Allow button to proceed further.

Step 3: Connect/Create a Google Merchant Center Account

Now, your Google account is connected. Next, you need to connect your Google Merchant Center account. If you already have Google Merchant Center account(s), it’ll display in the dropdown button. But if you don’t have one already, click “Create new” to connect a new account.

Now, review the Google Merchant Terms of Service and click “I agree” to proceed further.

Finally, click the “Complete setup” button to finalize your account setup.

Once the app setup is completed, go to the Settings tab and scroll down to see the “Conversion measurement” section. It should be turned on by default.

Step 4: Configure Sync Between Google Ads Account & Shopify Store

Next, go to your Google Ads account. Go to Tools > Data Manager and make sure your Google Merchant Center account is linked.

Now, it’s time to connect your Google Ads account with your Shopify store. In the same settings (Tools > Data Manager), scroll down and find Shopify in the “Featured products” section.

Once you click on Shopify, you’ll have radio button options — select “Direct connection” and click Authorize. Then, insert your store’s URL in the pop-up and click Continue.

You’ll be redirected to the Shopify admin. Under the “Connect a Google Ads account” section, you’ll see your Google Ads account number. Click the Connect button.

As you can see, the notification bar below confirms — “Connecting this account will set up Google Ads conversion measurement for your store.”

Next, turn on the “Customer Match” section, and then click on the “Complete setup” button. You’ll be redirected to the Google Ads account, and you’ll see the success message: “Data source connected”.

Now, complete the remaining settings as per your requirements.

Once all settings are configured, you’ll see a success message: “You’ve connected a product” — meaning, your Shopify store is now connected with your Google Ads account.

Step 5: Review & Test Configuration

Now, you can go to Goals > Summary, and you’ll find the “Google Shopping App Purchase” tab. Click on it and review the details and settings to verify everything is set up as required.

Additionally, you may also go ahead and perform a test to validate the configuration.

And that’s it for this method!

Your Google Ads account, Google Merchant Center, and Shopify store are synced, and you can collect and track your conversion measurement data.

Method #2: Add a Custom Pixel to Shopify

The second method is a bit more complex as it requires you to insert some code, but don’t worry, it’s pretty much doable even if you don’t know anything about coding. We’ll help you with a complete step–by-step guide and a free tool that can help you generate the code with simple copy-paste.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Create a New Conversion Event

We’ll create a new conversion event in the Google Ads account that will capture all the conversion data for your Shopify store. Go to Goals > Summary in your Google Ads account and click the “Create conversion action” button.

Select “Website” as we want to create the conversion action for our Shopify store/website. Then, insert your Shopify website’s URL and hit Scan.

Step 2: Configure The New Conversion Event

Now, you’ll see a new page for the complete configuration of this event. Scroll down a bit and click “Add a conversion action manually”.

Under the “Goal and action optimization” tab, you’ll have a dropdown with many different options such as Purchase, Add to Cart, Subscribe, Contact, Submit lead form, Sign-up, and so on. 

Basically, here, you’re supposed to define the action that you want to consider as a successful conversion. For this guide, we’ll go with the “Purchase” event — meaning, whenever a customer completes a purchase on your store, it will be considered a successful conversion.

Another important thing to keep in mind: When you expand the tab “Conversion action optimization options”, you’ll see the radio button selected by default — “Primary action used for bidding optimization”. Keep it as is.

Next, insert the “Conversion name” — to keep it easy to understand and identify, we’ve inserted “Google Ads to Shopify Purchase”. But it’s up to you.

Important note: In the Value field, make sure to keep the radio button: “Use different values for each conversion” in order to get dynamic values for your conversions. In the Count field, you can keep “Every”.

Next, for the remaining configurations, you can keep them as default or change them per your business requirements. Once all the configurations are finalized, click Done.

Once you click the Done button, the configuration window will close — and you’ll see that the new conversion event is added under “Conversion goal”. 

You can turn on enhanced conversions for this setup, which helps automatically detect and leverage the data provided by your customers. Review Google’s policies and terms, and click the “Agree and continue” button.

Lastly, click the Done button to save all the changes — and then you’ll see that your new conversion event (Google Ads to Shopify Purchase) has been added to the Summary section of your Google Ads account.

Step 3: Add the Code to Shopify Admin

Now, click on that hyperlink for your conversion event — “Google Ads to Shopify Purchase” — under Goals > Summary. In the Details section, you’ll find a “Tag setup” option. Click on the down arrow to expand it.

Then, select the last block with the title: “Use Google Tag Manager” and you’ll find two key information: 1. Conversion ID, 2. Conversion Label. These two details need to be inserted into the code that you’ll insert into your Shopify store.

But you might wonder — how do I get that code? Don’t worry, there’s a free tool for that where you just need to copy-paste your conversion ID and label — and the code will be generated automatically.

Here’s the link for the code generator tool: Conversion tracking code generator - KeyCommerce. Copy and paste your conversion ID and label into this tool and then click “Get your conversion tracking code”.

Side note: In this YouTube video by Sam from KeyCommerce, you can go through the complete guide for this process, if you wish to do so.

Moving forward — we’ve got the code and now we need to insert that into our Shopify store. So, go back to your Shopify admin and click Settings > Customer events. Then, click on the “Add custom pixel” button.

Then, create a pixel name. We’ll go with the same name that we created in the Google Ads account: “Google Ads to Shopify Purchase”. (Although not mandatory, ideally, you should keep the same name, as inserted in the Google Ads account, for the sake of easy identification.)

Once you’ve inserted the name, click the “Add pixel” button. You’ll see some code in the box by default. Select all and delete that code entirely — and then, copy-paste the code we just generated through the KeyCommerce tool. Hit the Save button.

Once saved, click on the Connect button, and you’ll see a pop-up notifying you that the pixel is subject to Shopify’s Terms of Service(ToS). Review the ToS and click the Connect button.

Finally, you’ll see a little pop-up at the bottom with a confirmation message — “Pixel connected”. That means your Google Ads account is now connected with your Shopify store to collect the conversion measurement data.

That said, keep in mind that once you’ve created a conversion event, it may take a day or two to get activated. As you can see in the screenshot below, “Google Shopping App Purchase” — the first conversion tracking we created through the Google & YouTube app — shows activated. However, the other one (Google Ads to Shopify Purchase) shows inactive.

It’s because the former was created a couple of days before the latter.

Which Conversion Tracking Method Should be Used?

As we’ve gone through two different methods for Google Ads conversion tracking, you might wonder which one you should use. Well, it’s totally up to you, as either one can get the job done for you.

However, you can also go for both of these methods together. How? Grow My Ads — a PPC ad agency — suggests setting up conversion tracking using both methods. The idea is that if your first setup (done through the Google & YouTube app) encounters any technical glitches, you would still be able to collect the data through the other setup.

To do this, you need to set one of your conversion tracking events as “Secondary”. As you can see in the screenshot below, both conversion tracking events show “Primary”. This can result in duplicate data.

For this guide, we’ll configure the first conversion tracking event (the one set up with the Google & YouTube app) as a secondary event. To do so, click on the event, and then click “Edit settings”. Change the radio button to “Secondary action not used for bidding optimization” and then click the Save and Done buttons.

That’s it! Now, the “Google Shopping for Purchase” is a secondary setup. Meaning, it will measure conversion data as a backup. Primarily, your conversion measurement data will be collected through the “Google Ads to Shopify Purchase” event, which we set up through code.

If you’d like to learn more about this, you can check out the complete step-by-step guide on YouTube:

Final Thoughts on Google Ads Conversion Tracking

Whether you’re running Google Ads or any other marketing campaigns, conversion tracking is the key to ensuring the success of your campaigns.

You must build a robust system to track and analyze your data on a real-time basis to effectively run your campaigns. If you’re not sure about anything or feeling overwhelmed, you can also hire a freelance professional to help you set up everything.

To learn more about other eCommerce marketing strategies, trends, and best practices — check out more resources on the GemPages Blog. Also, join the GemPages Facebook community to network and learn from like-minded entrepreneurs and experts.

FAQs About Google Ads Conversion Tracking